Are sales people merely an annoyance to our lives? (5 Minute Read)

by Trevor DudeckAugust 21, 2017

We all have had that encounter with a salesperson and felt trapped or awkward by them. Is the sales profession just a plague these days or does it have a greater purpose in our world, even in this age of endless information and connectivity? Let’s face it, if we want that new TV or car we typically do tons of research before even thinking of going to the store to look at the item in question. We feel armed and ready for the fight with the salesperson, we know exactly what we want and have our guards up for when the salesperson tries to sway our opinion.

What does happen when a salesperson makes a sale? Well let’s trace it out. First of all, they typically write that sale down on an order pad. You must recognise that that order pad did not start out as an order pad, it started out as a tree. The sales person is that person who paid those people that went out into the woods to cut that tree down when they decided to get out there and make a sale.

A whole bunch of people had to get out there in the forest and haul that tree to the paper mill. The sales person is the one who paid these people to haul that tree from the forest to the paper mill. In the paper mill, a lot of people, hundreds of people are involved in manufacturing that tree into paper. The sales person is the person who paid those people to manufacture that tree into paper when they got out there and made that sale!

But it goes a lot further than that you see…

The sales professional takes part of their profits, as we all know they do make money in their jobs. Their managers make a profit and if they are lucky their companies make a profit. I say that because if the company is not profitable they have to get out there looking for another job. With the state of things in the world we do not need companies shutting down we need more great start-up’s getting off the ground!

So, I went on a tangent there but back to business. So, the sales professional takes their part of the profit and in one scenario goes down to the grocery store and buys a can of beans. When they buy that can of beans the Grocer says “Well if you’re going to buy my beans I gotta get some more”. So, he goes down to the wholesaler and says “I need more beans”. Wholesaler says “if your gonna buy my beans I got to get some more”. The wholesaler than goes to the cannery and says “Need more beans”. Cannery says “If you’re going to buy my beans I got to get some more”, he goes to the famer to tell him that he needs more beans.

And it keeps going further down the rabbit hole…

When the cannery owner calls on the farmer to get more beans the farmer says “If you’re going to buy my beans I have to raise some more, to do that I got to buy a new tractor because the one I got is worn out”. Farmer goes down to the implement dealer to buy a new tractor and the implement dealer says “If you’re going to buy my tractor I have to get another one because this is the last of my inventory”. Implement dealer goes to the factory and makes an order for some more new tractors.

The factory upon receiving the new order says “If you’re going to buy our tractors we have to make more and to do that we have to bring in iron, steel, copper, plastic, aluminum, lead, zinc, sparkplugs and everything else”. To get all those items there has to be factories set up all over the world to manufacture these things and all of that happened because one day a sales person went out and made a sale.

A lot of people think that selling is making people want what they don’t need or which they have no real use for, even pushing something that simply has no value. Side to that some think that selling is making people buy something they don’t even want! What is the truth behind all that? My opinion on the role that the salesperson plays and why it’s so important is that without sales people, industry stops! Most new products are not demanded for by the public, but rather shown to the public as an asset or value. Recently such things as PayPal, Bitcoin (Which I do not fully understand yet) Amazon, Smart-Phones, they were all pushed by salesmen into the market and have become staples in our lives. If we look a little further back, the Telephone, Sewing Machine and even the lightbulb had to be sold! Edison had to install free lightbulbs before the concept was proven useful and a necessity!

The sales profession built the world we live in today and continues to grow the world of tomorrow. So, the next time you see a salesperson don’t do everything you can to avoid them, instead give them your full attention for a few minutes to see what they have to offer of value to your life. Rather than looking at them as someone who only wants your money for personal gain, look at them as someone who is offering value to yours and everybody else in the worlds life.

-Trevor Dudeck

Let us know in the comments below what your thought are on the sales profession and if you have a story good or bad about a sales person we want to hear it.